From left are Richard Conte, deputy to the mayor of Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, Benny Hornsby and Gerard Grosgogeat, mayor.

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Benny Hornsby
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Gen. Charles de Gaulle kicked us out of France over the price of chickens. I know, because I was there.

I was just a kid and didn't know anything about "realpolitik," but the ship I was on, which had been homeported in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, since the end of World War II, was one casualty of a trade war that had been going on between the United States and France for several years.

Last month, I was in Villefranche, and I had the opportunity to discuss those events of the early 1960s with the mayor of the city, the Honorable Gerard Grosgogeat, who is about my vintage. About all he remembered, ...